TOKYO: Japanese corporate bankruptcies rose 7.4 percent in June from a year earlier as businesses struggled to get access to credit and the global recession crippled sales.
A total of 1,422 companies went out of business in the month, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said in Tokyo today. Bankruptcies climbed 8.3 percent in the first half of 2009 to 8,169 cases, the report showed.
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said this week that funding remains tight even though some companies are finding it easier to issue debt. While the central bank and the government are helping companies obtain cash, earnings are under pressure amid a dearth of demand at home and abroad.
?Final demand is unlikely to pick up, so even companies that manage to survive will struggle to make profits,? said Azusa Kato, an economist at BNP Paribas in Tokyo.
Bank lending increased 2.5 percent in June from a year earlier, the slowest pace in eight months, the central bank said earlier today.
Aprecio Co., an internet cafe operator, filed for bankruptcy last month, becoming Japan?s 18th publicly traded company to fail in 2009, Bloomberg data show. Last year, 33 listed companies went bankrupt in Japan, the most in the postwar era.
Exports tumbled 42.2 percent in May from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said today. Household spending rose for the first time in 16 months, though economists say the gains were largely the result of government cash handouts and won?t be sustained as unemployment climbs and wages slump.
More: continued here